Sunday, August 21, 2016

Kitchen Renovation Part 2 - Dismantling.

Dismantling Day!

Just kidding. It wasn't as bad as that, we didn't really need to bring in the big guns.

Only... our project began with a little misunderstanding. I was under the impression that we were going to do the kitchen one section at a time and so I obediently cleared the cupboard from above the hood all the way to the window. Himself looked at me in disbelief.
"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "It would take forever to do the kitchen that way. No, I'm going to take everything down and rebuild it entirely."

Say WHAT!?!

The first day began with me frantically packing the contents of the kitchen into whatever receptacle I could find and attempting to fashion an interim kitchen out of the way. Then Himself erected a large plastic "wall" to close off the kitchen from the living room and keep the dust out of the rest of the house. It didn't take us long to fight with that wall!

When he said we're going to "close it off" he meant CLOSE IT OFF! First it was stapled, then taped, then topped. Then he closed the air vents so that nothing would be sucked through the HVAC system. We had a small opening for access at night that was closed during the day with a line of tape, and it was the Most Annoying Thing Ever! I cannot tell you how many times Jock brought it down because he was determined to get his 90lb body through a 19lb opening. (Jock is in the top photo, in case you needed a reminder.) (No, the black and white, not the one on the tractor!)

Himself began with the peninsula hanging cupboard. I felt like singing Handel's Messiah. Hallelujah! Haaaa-le-lujah. Ha-le-lujah! No more head dents in my future.

Next, all the wall cupboards came down. He removed all the doors and then used a system of planks on top of a big 4x4 piece, with an hydraulic jack under another piece of wood. He would bring the jack up to hold the unit, then I would stabilize it as he undid all the screws. Then he would lower the jack and we carried it outside. All done very, very carefully. Very clever system. Very clever man I haz there! Proud, and all that. Yup!

(By the way, it is with great relief that I advise Himself is a great believer in TL:DR* - so I can brag on him as much as I like and he's none the wiser. LOL. He just checks out the pictures when I show him my posts. Gotta love it. Perhaps he's not the only smarty-pants in this family. hee hee)

(*Too Long; Didn't Read)

I know the structural footprint of the kitchen has not changed, we still have the outer walls in exactly the same place, but it feels so BIG now that all the cupboards are gone!

The tiles were all removed over the course of two days. What a job that turned out to be! Apparently, in the old days tiles were set into a thick layer of gunk called a mud bed. An apt phrase! This stuff is about an inch thick behind the tiles and getting them off was an exercise in frustration and an art with a hammer and chisel. Michelangelo had nothing on me! I dunno how I got the job of removing tiles, but Himself showed me how to do it and then left me to it. Yes, I know this looks like he's doing it, but you can't see what them paws is up to! Oh, okay then, he did do some of them. But I did a lot!

As the mud bed was extremely thick, it damaged the drywall so severely that it all had to be removed. My not-at-all OCD husband cut it out in measurably neat and squared-off shapes. He reckoned it was to make it easier for himself to install the new drywall, as neat shapes are easier to fit, but I know better. Wait until I show you how the fusspot built our chicken coop!

Next we started on that wall. This unit was more interesting to remove because of that strange L-shape, but we managed it the same way. The fridge got moved around a lot during this project, it moved around cupboards and backwards and forwards in the kitchen, and even into the dining room for a spell. It really is a dinosaur of a thing and there were many occasions when I gave it the evil eye!

Oh, and we nearly set the house on fire with that fridge! Turns out the fridge has a dedicated plug point, and when we moved it to a new plug point, it melted all the wires and nearly set the place alight. Unfortunately, the phone was plugged into the plug on the other side of the wall that was daisy chained with it, and so our phone got fried. Most frustrating!

Again, the wall had to be removed where the tiles had been, so there was another spot needing new sheet rock. And now began the joyous progress of removing wallpaper. I have no experience with wallpaper, it's not an African "thing" and I don't think I've ever lived in a house with wallpaper before Himself and I got hitched. Well, not that I remember. I've never put it up, nor brought it down, so Google was my friend. In the beginning you will notice I began with the ubiquitous bottle of hot water. They lied, I tell you. That stuff does NOT work! An entire afternoon and all I got down was that little patch above the ladder!

P.S. That is not a large bottle of wine in the bottom right corner. It is a gallon of sweet tea. I mix up about five gallons each week for Himself. Sweet tea is very popular in hot weather in Texas and I had to learn how to make it. Although, by the end of that day, I'd have given my ladder for a gallon of fermented grape juice, I can tell you!

This picture is not that interesting in terms of deconstruction, but it is a really good illustration of how shadowed the kitchen gets in the afternoon.

A return to Google revealed an alternative method of wallpaper removal and so my clothes steamer was pressed into service. It is going to need a massive cleaning now to get all the glue and gunk out of the nozzles, but it was a huge improvement! Where that little square took me an afternoon, the entire kitchen barring the little patch around the window was done in a day using the steamer. By the end of that day, however, my desire for wine had expanded to a jeroboam of the stuff!

It turned out that the main reason we had such trouble removing the tiles and wallpaper was because the drywall had not been sized before being covered. No, it doesn't mean it was not properly measured. Sizing drywall means treating it properly to seal the drywall and prime it for the next layer: paint, wallpaper, tile, or whatever. As you can see here, the wallpaper had been installed directly over the untreated drywall - a major construction no-no. Himself and I considered just priming over the wallpaper, but on further investigation (I love you, Google!) we discovered we would just be making things worse for ourselves. It turned out later, as we were painting, that this was true, but I will explain that to you when I get to that part.

Removing the wallpaper involved removing the drywall paper as it was fused to the wallpaper glue. The drywall paper covering is not supposed to be removed, it is part of the protection of the drywall. The wallpaper also removed some of the tape that covers the joints of the drywall as the glue had fused onto that - an indication that it had not been properly plastered, if plastered at all, before the wallpaper was installed. Himself and I have been very disappointed in the poor quality workmanship that has been revealed in this house.

One final thing that was brought to our attention during the dismantling and our almost-fire: none of the plug points were GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) and they were all installed upside down. Now, GFCI was not a requirement when the house was built, but I cannot understand how an electrician could have installed all the outlets upside down! If we'd had a GFCI outlet, it would have tripped before melting all the wires and my telephone would still be taking messages!

Hence, part of the reconstruction would involve some rewiring and the replacement of all our outlets. Whoop-de-doo! Admittedly, GFCI's are not that expensive (about $5 each) and Himself is doing all the work, but it is still an expense that grinds my goat!

Well, the kitchen has been stripped. Now the fun begins as we start to rebuild it. Stay tuned!

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About Me

I've discovered that I have a vibrant creative side, and I'm exploring both it and my world with enthusiasm and curiosity. I could probably be named after any one of the Seven Dwarves, but am working towards becoming more of an all-rounder like Snow White. :)

My husband, Himself, is a wonderful man who supports my madness as long as I keep him out of it! The Bratness is tolerant of her crazy mamma, and her offspring, Squiggs, thinks I'm hilarious.